I decided that PIXELS will be a horrible movie after seeing this teaser poster and then reading about 14 words into this description:

When aliens misinterpret video-feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war, they attack the Earth using the games as models for their various assaults. President William Cooper (Kevin James) calls upon his childhood best friend, former 1980s video game champion Sam Brenner (Adam Sandler), who is now a home theater installer and had a previous relationship with William’s wife (Jane Krakowski) to lead a team of old-school arcaders (Peter Dinklage and Josh Gad) to defeat the aliens and save the planet.

“JAMES HETFIELD, LARS ULRICH, KIRK HAMMETT and ROBERT TRUJILLO TOGETHER IN HOMETOWN MARIN COUNTY FOR U.S. PUBLIC PREMIERE

“METALLICA THROUGH THE NEVER”

San Rafael, CA, August 30, 2013 – The Mill Valley Film Festival is excited to announce a special kick-off event in anticipation of the 36th Mill Valley Film Festival. James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo will be on hand to present the U.S. Public Premiere of their new 3D feature film that combines a spectacular arena live performance with a surreal adventure story. Picturehouse’s new release METALLICA THROUGH THE NEVER is a feature film starring members of the iconic rock band and emerging young star Dane DeHaan (The Place Beyond the Pines, Kill Your Darlings, The Amazing Spider-Man 2).

In this music-driven, 3D motion picture event, award-winning filmmaker Nimród Antal (Predators, Kontroll) immerses audiences in a bracing, raw and visceral cinematic experience with spectacular live performance footage of Metallica’s most iconic songs – created exclusively for film – combined with a bold, narrative story featuring imagery drawn from the band’s trailblazing iconography. Dane DeHaan portrays Trip, a young roadie sent on an urgent mission, during the Metallica’s roaring live set in front of a sold-out arena. The film features dazzling pyrotechnics, the most elaborate live-performance stage ever built and state-of-the-art 3-D photography, captured using up to 24 cameras simultaneously. Picturehouse will releaseM ETALLICA THROUGH THE NEVER in North America on September 27, 2013exclusively in over 300 IMAX® 3D Theatres, and will expand into additional theaters on October 4, 2013.

WHO: Metallica – James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo, along with Dane DeHaan and Nimród Antal

WHAT: METALLICA THROUGH THE NEVER Pre Festival Screening
U.S. Public Premiere
Followed by on-stage interview and audience Q&A, moderated by Mark Fishkin, Executive Director, California Film Institute and Founder, Mill Valley Film Festival

About the 36th Mill Valley Film Festival
Presented by the California Film Institute, the 36th Mill Valley Film Festival runsOctober 3-13, 2013 at the CinéArts@Sequoia (25 Throckmorton Avenue, Mill Valley), Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center (1118 Fourth Street, San Rafael), and other venues throughout the Bay Area.

The internationally acclaimed Mill Valley Film Festival is greatly anticipated by cinema aficionados and film industry professionals alike, is well known for the quality of its programming, and is considered a major launching pad for the annual awards season. It has established an impressive track record for launching new films and new filmmakers, and has earned a reputation as a filmmakers’ festival by offering a high-profile, prestigious, noncompetitive environment for celebrating the best in independent and world cinema. MVFF holds the distinction of presenting premieres of four of the last five films that have gone on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture (Slumdog Millionaire, The King’s Speech, The Artist, Argo).

Each year, the 11-day Festival welcomes more than 200 filmmakers, representing over 50 countries from around the world. Festival sections include: World Cinema; US Cinema; Valley of the Docs; Children’s FilmFest; 5@5, a daily shorts program; and Active Cinema, MVFF’s activist films initiative. Gala celebrations, tributes to actors and filmmakers, workshops, panels and seminars, as well as opportunities to mingle with filmmakers in the spectacular setting of the San Francisco Bay Area are just a few of the reasons Screen International named Mill Valley one of its top 10 US film festivals.
Tickets are $14.00 (CFI Members, $11.50), unless otherwise noted and are available for purchase starting on September 8 for CFI or MVFF Fast Pass holders, Premier Patron and Cinema Benefactors only; September 9 for Director’s Circle and above; September 10 for Gold Star and above; September 12 for all CFI Members only and September 14 for the general public. For tickets and additional information, please visit www.mvff.com or call 877.874.MVFF (6833).

About Metallica
Formed in 1981 by drummer Lars Ulrich and guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield, Metallica have become one of the most influential and commercially successful rock bands in history, having sold 110 million albums worldwide and playing to millions of fans the world over. They have scored several multi-platinum albums, including 1991’s Metallica (commonly referred to as “The Black Album”), which is the best selling album in history of Soundscan scanning 16 million albums in the United States alone. Their latest album, Death Magnetic, was certified platinum just six weeks after it debuted atop the Billboard Top 200 Album chart in October 2008. Death Magnetic charted at #1 in 32 countries. Metallica have also garnered numerous awards and accolades, including nine Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, and multiple MTV Video Music Awards, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in 2009. The band recently celebrated its 30th-Anniversary with a week’s worth of Fan Club concerts at the Fillmore Theater in San Francisco, CA. In 2012, they announced the launch of Orion Music + More, an annual two-day festival curated and headlined by the band. Last summer, Metallica played eight shows to nearly 180,000 fans at the Sports Arena in Mexico City and unveiled a brand new stage in that contained iconic elements that spanned its 30+ year career. The stage is featured in the upcoming film Metallica Through the Never which will be released this fall. Metallica is currently on a run of dates throughout Asia and recently set the record for the fastest sell out concert by a Western band at the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai, China. For more information please visitwww.metallica.com.

About the California Film Institute
The nonprofit California Film Institute celebrates and promotes film as art and education through the presentation of the Mill Valley Film Festival and year-round exhibitions at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, film distribution by CFI Releasing, and building the next generation of filmmakers and audiences through the CFI Education program. For more information www.cafilm.org or (415) 383-5256.

Supporters
As a nonprofit arts organization, CFI relies on the generosity of its community to sustain not only the Festival, but also the year-round programs of the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center and CFI Education. The invaluable support of our sponsors, foundations, and individual donors ensures our continued success as we celebrate our 36th year.

CFI is once again proud to acknowledge the leadership support of Christopher B. and Jeannie Meg Smith, and the continued major support of Jennifer Coslett MacCready, Ken and Jackie Broad Family Fund, The Bernard Osher Foundation, the Gruber Family Foundation, the Marin Community Foundation, the Christine Zecca Foundation and the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation. We are also fortunate to have the continued contributions of the following Major Sponsors of the Mill Valley Film Festival: Wells Fargo, Maroevich, O’Shea & Coghlan Insurance Services, Frantoio Ristorante and Olive Oil Co., Zaentz Media Center/A Wareham and Development.

The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday announced that the redesigned $100 note will begin circulating on October 8, 2013. This note, which incorporates new security features such as a blue, 3-D security ribbon, will be easier for the public to authenticate but more difficult for counterfeiters to replicate.

The new design for the $100 note was unveiled in 2010, but its introduction was postponed following an unexpected production delay. To ensure a smooth transition to the redesigned note when it begins circulating in October, the U.S. Currency Education Program is reaching out to businesses and consumers around the world to raise awareness about the new design and inform them about how to use its security features. More information about the new design $100 note, as well as training and educational materials, can be found at www.newmoney.gov.

First with the drugs. No surprises here, really. Note the bump in the Lombard / Marina area where it’s cheaper to live in a motel than live in an apartment for some reason. Also note, the hillock in the outer Outer Sunset way out there near La Playa – that surprises me not. However, I was not aware of some of the other baby hills on this map. (Also, appears as if some of our youthful USF students are more into the drugs than their peers at SFSU…)

Simply, this is an awesome way to display this data:

Now, with the sex workers. Again, Lombard Street seems to have more than its fair share of elevation.

The bumps in the Sunset and the Richmond – I can’t relate them to my mental map of San Francisco. But there they are:

Doug beseeches us to not consider these maps “as being accurate,” but it’s a little late for that for me.

Anyway, it’s quite an art project. (In fact, there’s your art show right there – just do these maps in 3D for real using paper or whatnot and then get the National Endowment for the Arts on the horn.)

Not exactly sure what kind of photography rig this fellow was using in Civic Center the other day. It could be something as simple as two SLR cameras in a box, or maybe it has something to do with video or 3D.